Dear Good Times,

Your article on UCSC’s College Republicans was more like a 7-page Republican press release than it was decent journalism. You create the illusion that the College Republicans are on the up-and-up, while failing to see through their ridiculous hype. The Republicans claim that they have “315 students signed up,” while the organization itself can only get a handful of students out to a meeting – the most pictured in the article was 13. This is in stark contrast to other organizations on campus, such as the Student and Worker Coalition for Justice (SWCJ) or Students Against War (SAW), both of which regularly get over 50 students every week. The Republicans have been completely ineffective at actual organizing. They claim to support military recruiters, yet were nowhere to be seen as SAW organized the 300 students that kicked recruiters off campus on April 5. Little more than a week later, the Republicans opposed a strike by low-wage AFSCME workers, while the unions and the SWCJ got over 1,000 students out in the streets, physically shutting down the campus, helping AFSCME win a better contract. This fall, Republicans worked hard to organize a protest against striking metro drivers, only to find that more than two-dozen students from the SWCJ and MEChA marched circles around less than 10 Republicans. These Republicans are not thriving – they’re failing. Yet, the Good Times and the corporate media irresponsibly focus on them. In your article, 7 Republicans are quoted in depth, while the only “alternate” opinion is from the UCSC Democrats’ president – an organization that frequently has more in common with the Republicans than they do with mass organizations like SAW and SWCJ. It’s time for the media to stop encouraging these ineffective racist Republicans who say things such as “we need more black people on the front lines” and “they can shoot all the terrorists, easily spotted by their non-white skin,” – an organization founded by Matthew Cox - one of two frat kids charged by the D.A. for brutalizing a decade old fish. Stop encouraging them and start doing honest journalism.